Zomato appoints former MakeMyTrip exec to head food delivery business

Online restaurant discovery and food delivery company Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd said on Tuesday it has hired Mohit Gupta as the chief executive officer of its food delivery business.

“He (Gupta) is one of the few internet industry veterans who has helped build a formidable transactions business in India,” said Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, in a statement.

Zomato offers food ordering services in 17 cities in India and five cities in West Asia.

Gupta was formerly the chief operating officer at online travel agency MakeMyTrip. He had joined MakeMytrip in 2008 as chief marketing officer. Prior to MakeMyTrip, Gupta was the vice president of marketing at PepsiCo India. Gupta began his career with Tata Group company Voltas Ltd as a management trainee.

Gupta graduated in mechanical engineering from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, and holds a postgraduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

“Zomato is solving a lot of interesting problems and has a very large vision that I resonate with,” Gupta said.

The company has hired and lost several senior-level executives in recent months.

Last month, Mukund Kulashekaran quit as the chief business officer at Zomato after a three-year stint. Co-founder Pankaj Chaddah left in March after a decade-long stay.

In January, Zomato named global advertising sales head Gaurav Gupta its chief operating officer to replace Chaddah. In May, it appointed General Electric executive Sameer Maheshwary as its chief financial officer.

Zomato was founded in 2008 by Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi alumni Deepinder Goyal and Chaddah, who were both previously executives at management consultancy firm Bain & Company.

The company increased its revenue and reduced its cash burn in the financial year 2017-18, CEO Goyal said in April.

Revenue jumped 45% to $74 million for 2017-18 from $51 million the year before, Goyal said. He didn’t disclose the profit or loss figures but said the operating cash burn for 2017-18 fell to around $11 million from $15 million.